California's Emergency Rooms Collapsing Under Mandate to Treat Poor for Free

The situation in California's emergency rooms is now itself an emergency.  Thanks to (1) massive levels of illegal immigration that have hit California especially hard; (2) California's massive state budget deficit run up by Democrats who control the state legislature (contributed to by California's effort to provide free health care and education to all those illegal immigrants) and resulting cutbacks in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, and (3) the federal mandate that emergency rooms treat every patient regardless of abiliity to pay, California's entire ER system is failing, with some lives literally being lost as a result:

Across the state, scores of hospitals and emergency rooms have shut their doors in the last decade, leading to long waits, diverted ambulances and, in the most extreme cases, patient deaths.

Doctors say the situation is only getting worse. State officials, struggling to balance the budget, have proposed another $1.1 billion in Medi-Cal cuts.

"Are people truly suffering consequences? Absolutely," said Irv Edwards, one of the doctors represented in the lawsuit and president of Emergent Medical Associates, which staffs 14 emergency rooms in California. "This could happen to you or me. We could be traveling through San Francisco or San Jose, get in a car accident, have a broken leg and end up in the ER, where it takes hours to be treated regardless of our screams. Then we get to diagnosis, and they say, 'There's no orthopedic on call. I'm sorry.' "

 

. . . .  'Emergency room physicians say they have been particularly hard hit by the state's low Medi-Cal reimbursement rates. Unlike other doctors who can choose not to accept Medi-Cal patients, emergency room doctors are required by federal law to treat every patient who walks through the door, regardless of their ability to pay.

. . . .  The stress on emergency departments is driven by both hospital and emergency room closures and an increasing number of Medi-Cal patients unable to find primary care physicians who will treat them. As a result, many turn to emergency rooms, further compounding the overcrowding.

Specialists are also opting out of on-call assignments, Edwards said. That means waits for cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons and other specially trained doctors can be longer, if they are available at all.

"There are emergency rooms throughout the state where people, we believe, have died," Edwards said. "Some have died in the lobby before they were seen. Some have died shortly after being placed in a bed after having waited in the lobby for hours. . . . Patients are suffering every day."

This problem is no longer limited to those unable to pay for their medical care.  It now threatens the safety of every person in the state, including insured patients, who may need emergency services. 

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